Hestercombe

This Somerset garden was designed by the famous one-two punch of Edwin Lutyens (architecture, bones of the garden) and Gertrude Jekyll (abundant colour-coordinated plantings). The house, which houses the Somerset fire brigade, is not open to public, but everyone says it isn’t worth it anyway. Yet it makes a fabulous backdrop for the Victorian terrace, which is flanked by two long stone rills. Opposite the house is the pergola walk. The sunken square formed by all these features is called the Great Plat, which is a large parterre garden broken up into geometric spaces and planted with a succession of colours, from spring delphiniums to summer cannas. Noted Lutyen’s touches include the elliptical steps and the use of stone to create the spaces within the gardens—these are seen at their finest here.

Enter the gardens through the Chinese gate, which has a cut-out that lets you peek in, and onto the terrace, planted in lavender, catmint and other purple and silver plants. There is another garden at Hestercombe, an 18th century landscape garden that was discovered only in the 1990s. Peter White was working nearby, and would take his lunch into the woods at Hestercombe. Gradually, he noticed remnants of the garden that had been built between 1750 and 1786 by Coplestone Warre Bampfylde. White was so taken with the garden, that he has been instrumental in its restoration, and is now chief executive of the Hestercombe Gardens Trust. The combination of the 18th century landscape garden with its path through woods and carefully planned ‘natural’ views and the Lutyens-Jekyll Edwardian garden makes Hestercombe one of the finest garden visits anywhere.